NY tells hikers to avoid high elevation trails

May 23, 2018

The Adirondack High Peaks seen from St. Regis Mountain. (Wikimedia Photo)

New York officials are urging hikers to avoid hiking on high elevation trails for the next several weeks.

The Department of Environmental Conservation says hikers should be cautious and postpone hikes on trails above 2,500 feet until high elevation trails have dried and hardened. Snow and ice are currently melting on high elevation trails and steep trails with thin soils are dangerous for hiking and susceptible to erosion, and sensitive alpine vegetation is easily damaged.

Backcountry trails in the highest elevations are still covered in slowly melting ice and snow. Steep trails with thin soils can become a mix of ice and mud as the ice melts and frost leaves the ground, making the trails slippery and vulnerable to erosion by hikers. Sensitive alpine vegetation is also easily damaged by hikers attempting to avoid the mud and ice.

Avoiding these trails during the Muddy Trail Advisory helps to alleviate impacts to the trail tread and adjacent areas. Saturated, thin soils and steep grades combined with hikers trying to get traction lead to increased impacts to the trail corridors during the shoulder seasons. Snow and ice “monorails” are difficult to hike on, resulting in users widening trails.

DEC encourages hikers to help avoid damage to hiking trails and sensitive high elevation vegetation by avoiding trails above 2,500 feet, particularly high elevation trails in the Dix, Giant, and High Peaks Wilderness areas in the northern Adirondacks. They ask hikers avoid the following trails until trail conditions improve:

Due to winter weather and conditions lasting into late April and early May, many seasonal access roads in the Adirondacks which are typically open by the Memorial Day Holiday Weekend will remain closed. DEC closes seasonal access roads each spring for mud season. The roads are opened to public motor vehicle use only after they dry and harden, and all necessary maintenance and repairs are completed.

The following seasonal access roads, or portions of them, will remain closed this weekend:

Blue Mountain Wild Forest (Township 19 Conservation Easement Tract)

O’Neill Flow Road

Five Mile Conservation Easement Tract

Five Mile Road

Gold Mine Conservation Easement Tract

Gold Mine Road

Grass River Wild Forest (and nearby conservation easement lands)

Streeter Lake Road

Spruce Mountain Road

Long Pond Main Haul Road

Gulf Brook Road

High Peaks/Dix Mountain Wilderness

South Meadow Lane

Elk Lake Road

Gulf Brook Road (Boreas Ponds Tract)

Kushaqua Conservation Easement Tract

North Branch Road

Mud Pond Road

Moose River Plains Complex

Limekiln Lake – Cedar River Road (aka Moose River Plains Road) between the Cedar River Gate (Indian Lake side) and Lost Pond Road